Now that the dust has settled following the tragic death of two of his best friends, Ashley Taylor Dawson worries that his Hollyoaks character, Daren Osborne, will return to gambling!

Fans of the hit Channel 4 soap will know how earlier this year one of his best friends, Riley Costello (Rob Norbury) was accidentally killed from a stray bullet in the show down between Brendan Brady (Emmet J. Scanlan) and Walker (Neil Newbon), and then a few weeks ago he lost his other best friend, Rhys Ashworth (Andy Moss) during the tragic wedding day bus crash.

Now the actor who plays him, Ashley Taylor Dawson, fears that these two tragedies may impact on his character, and make him return to bad habits!

Darren’s gambling addiction originally began back in 2008 and caused him a great deal of trouble, leading him to steal from his family and ultimately losing everything, including girlfriend at the time Zoe Carpenter when he stole from her. Darren went on, with Zoe’s help and counselling, to battle his addiction after a poker game resulted in him losing his share of the Dog In The Pond to Warren Fox.

Zoe Carpenter played by Zoe Lister

But now faced with all the grief of his friends deaths, plus the premature birth of his baby, Taylor Dawson has revealed to BANG showbiz that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if his characters demons may return to haunt him, commenting: “Once a gambler always a gambler like any kind of addict, it’s always there. If something comes up and maybe tempts him to do that then knowing Darren it wouldn’t surprise me if got back into it.”

“I think their deaths will have a massive effect on Darren. There is so much going on. Grief is one of those things which takes time to deal with.

“I think he’s been bottling it up and I think at one point he will let it all out.”

However, he has an added bonus on his side this time, should he fall back into his old ways, in the form of his wife Nancy (Jessica Fox), who Taylor Dawson believes may help keep Darren “on the straight and narrow”, commenting:

“I don’t think there is anyone who can keep Darren on the straight and narrow. I guess that’s why he and Nancy work so well together because she keeps him on the straight and narrow as much as she can.

“She’s very level-headed and sensible which is why they work so well together as a team. But there’s only so much you can do, so we’ll see.”

Hollyoaks can be seen week nights at 6.30pm on Channel 4/ Channel 4 HD.